Last update - 00:00 28/09/2006
Abbas orders partial payment of salaries to PA civil service employees
By Avi Issacharof, Haaretz Correspondent, and The Associated Press
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas ordered the payment of NIS 1,500 to PA civil service employees to cover a portion of their unpaid salaries, Rafik el-Husseini, Abbas' bureau chief, said Thursday.
The partial payment was ordered after Qatar and Saudi Arabia each donated funds to the PA.
Long lines formed Thursday outside banks in Gaza City as PA employees waited to receive their salaries.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of Palestinian Authority police and security officers on Thursday blocked all main roads in Gaza City with garbage containers and burning tires in a protest against unpaid wages.
Policemen, firing rifles into the air, turned some garbage bins upside down, causing rubbish to spill out and also used broken concrete to halt traffic on Gaza City's main streets, in a further sign of growing unrest over delayed salaries.
Most police were from security services loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who has been locked in an increasingly bitter confrontation with the Hamas-led government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh over stalled efforts to form a unity government.
Palestinians hope a unity government will lead to the lifting of Western sanctions imposed when Hamas took office in March. The embargo has prevented the Palestinian Authority from paying full salaries since then.
"Our protest is not politically motivated, it is motivated by the hunger and needs of our children," said one policeman, his face smeared with black from the smoke of burning tires.
"Haniyeh or Abbas, we do not care about their problems. We care about our welfare," crowds chanted.
The West cut direct aid to the PA over Hamas's refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence, and accept interim peace accords with Israel.
Senior Hamas lawmaker Mushir al-Masri accused some "political parties" of sponsoring the rallies.
He blamed officials at Abbas's office for not making good on the president's promise to help make a full salary payment for September to 165,000 government workers. Haniyeh made a similar pledge.
"There are administrative measures that were supposed to be made by the president's office. They have not been finalized yet," Masri told Reuters.
Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, spokesman for Fatah in Gaza and the West Bank, said Hamas was trying to escape its responsibility for ending the financial crisis.
"The reality on the ground says people need food for their children. They do not care who pays the salaries, the government or the president," Abu Khoussa said.
The protests closed almost all main roads in Gaza City.
The police action comes amid a month-long strike by many other government workers such as teachers over unpaid wages.
Some analysts have speculated that such pressure might have forced Hamas to meet Abbas's demand that the planned unity government recognize interim peace deals with Israel as a way to satisfy the West and bring the removal of sanctions.
Hamas, which trounced Fatah in January parliamentary elections, has insisted it would never recognize Israel. Both Hamas and Fatah have traded accusations over who is to blame for the breakdown in unity talks.